Wednesday, October 31, 2018

This morning I was honored to receive the Trailblazer Award at the Lights on Afterschool Summit for my work advocating for afterschool programming.

Afterschool programming is incredibly important and plays such a vital role in lives of young people – improving attendance and academic aspirations, reducing risky behaviors, promoting physical health, and so much more. Few tools are as effective at promoting development and keeping kids safe as quality afterschool initiatives.

Since my time as Mayor of Providence, where I founded the Providence After School Alliance which provided thousands of students with hands-on learning opportunities, I’ve been a strong advocate for afterschool programming.

In Congress, I have continually advocated for robust funding for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program, which provides critical funding for afterschool programming. When the President proposed the elimination of federal funding for afterschool programs, I led the fight to restore these funds, and the result was a $20 million increase in federal funding. I also helped lead an effort supporting reauthorization of this program, and every year I’ve led the bipartisan appropriations request.

I promise to remain a strong advocate for critical afterschool programming that helps keep young people on a solid track to success.

MANUFACTURERS SUMMITThe manufacturing industry has a long history in Rhode Island. The industrial revolution began in our state and continues to contribute to many strong manufacturing sectors today. That’s why this week I was happy to join Senator Reed, Senator Whitehouse, and Congressman Langevin at the Rhode Island Manufacturers Association’s (RIMA) first ever Manufacturers & Congressional Summit where we discussed some of the concerns facing the manufacturing industry in our state.

This industry provides good-paying jobs and is helping to rebuild our middle class. In Rhode Island, this industry currently employs more than 41,000 people, roughly 8.5 percent of the workforce in our state. But for years we have seen these good jobs shipped overseas.

The high-level nature of the manufacturing industry in the U.S. means that many of the jobs require additional training and skills development. It is estimated that over the next decade nearly 3.5 million manufacturing jobs will be needed but 2 million are expected to go unfilled due to a skills gap. We need to make sure that when these positions become available the workforce is ready to fill them.

House Democrats have come up with a plan to help address this skills gap and are calling for expanding registered apprenticeships and work-based learning programs, as well as providing a new tax credit to employers to train and hire new workers, and creating a network of thousands of partners between businesses, career and technical programs, public school, and community colleges.

I have been proud to support legislation aimed at helping this sector of our economy grow. I will continue to advocate in Congress for policies and funding to advance the manufacturing industry in our state, and allow Rhode Island to reclaim its identity as a leader of manufacturing and innovation.

CODAC 40TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

On Thursday, I attended CODAC’s 40th Anniversary Celebration in Newport and was honored with their Champion Award. For over four decades, CODAC has provided outpatient opioid treatment to countless Rhode Islanders.

The opioid crisis has hit our state particularly hard, with the Center for Disease Control ranking Rhode Island with the ninth highest drug overdose death rate in the country.

I’ve been proud to help secure over $12 million for Rhode Island this year to help fight this epidemic. But in order to fully confront this crisis, we need a comprehensive approach engaging every level of government, stakeholders, nonprofits and the private sector working together. We need a strategy that includes resources for folks struggling with addiction to get the health care they need to address this disease; greater awareness of the over-prescription of opiate painkillers, as well as ways for folks to dispose of their prescription drugs after they’re done. We must also focus on the preservation of human life by equipping more first responders with naloxone and treating an overdose first and foremost as a medical emergency.

ELECTRIC BUS LAUNCH

This past Monday marked a step forward in terms of Rhode Island’s commitment to reducing our dependence on fossil fuels as we celebrated the state’s first electric buses. These zero-emission buses will help reduce tailpipe emissions in our state and improve air quality and public health.

The funding that made this project possible was from a settlement with Volkswagen who misled the public about their emissions by installing illegal software.

As a country, we need to continue moving away from our dependence on fossil fuels and put policies in place that encourage investments in our public transportation systems and green initiatives. These types of investments will help move Rhode Island and the country forward, while being responsible stewards of the environment.

House Democrats have put forth a bold plan, A Better Deal to Rebuild America, which would invest $1 trillion dollars and create more than $16 million jobs. This plan would build sustainable, resilient infrastructure that would help strengthen and connect communities while protecting clean air and water.

We need to be making investments that will help improve hardworking American lives every day while keeping them healthy and protecting our environment. Making sure that people have access to an efficient, reliable public transportation system is one vital part of this. RIBBON CUTTING CEREMONY

Today I joined community members and leaders for a ribbon cutting ceremony in Providence. The ceremony was in celebration of a 128-unit complex that will offer affordable apartments for seniors and families. This project was taken on by RI Housing and was supported by Low Income Housing Tax Credits, among other funding sources.

Affordable housing is a critical issue in our state and country. So many families are working harder than ever but unable to get ahead with stagnant wages and the rising costs of living. And too many hardworking families in our state are still struggling with issues related to housing security, even as we slowly recover from the housing crisis.

In Congress, I was proud to co-sponsor the bipartisan Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act which would increase the allocation of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit by 50% and would provide more opportunities to expand this important tax credit.

Continuing to expand programs like this will help all families achieve access to a clean, safe, affordable home, which provides a base for families to thrive and prosper.

CITIZENS BANK PELL BRIDGE RUN

Last Sunday, I participated in the Citizens Bank Pell Bridge Run which each year raises money for local nonprofits in our state. I was amazed by the strong turnout from our community in support of these organizations. Everyone who participated could have been somewhere else on an early Sunday morning, but they decided to show up to raise funds for their community and the great organizations in our state.As always, if you or someone you know has any questions or concerns, please call my office at 729-5600 or send me an email at David.Cicilline@mail.house.gov .You can also click here to follow my work on Twitter.

(REMEMBER, THE INITIAL VERSION OF THIS POST WAS PUBLISHED PRIOR TO THE NOVEMBER, 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. IT DIDN'T OCCUR TO ME THAT BOGUS VOTE TOTALS WOULD BE THE KEY TO
HANDING DONALD TRUMP THE WHITE HOUSE.)

Progressives who continue to think that Donald Trumps Lack of:- Maturity.- Ability.- Integrity.- Emotional Stability.etc...and Highlighting These Traits to the American Public, are making a Crucial, and possibly Fatal Error, when it comes to preventing any/or all of his Agenda of Hate from becoming part of our legal system. WHY? BECAUSE its misunderstanding the Source of his support, and the extent to which these Individuals and Groups will go to bring about changes in our system of government, with the goal of undermining the very fabric of our Constitutional Republic. To them, ANYTHING THAT ADVANCES THEIR AGENDA IS PERMISSABLE. They may attempt to disguise these tactics by presenting them as "PATRIOTIC," OR "FAITH" BASED NECESSITIES TO "PRESERVE" AND "PROTECT" THE "AMERICAN" WAY OF LIFE, but those terms are just a smokescreen, hiding "THE ENDS JUSTIFY THE MEANS" Mentality.Hard Core Trump Supporters go far beyond the Traditional Elements of the Republican Party Platform. To them, Hate, Prejudice, Xenophobia, Racism, and Religious Zealotry are perfectly valid and justifiable reasons to form Public Policy and Law.That brings us to Rule #1- What Donald Trump has Done or Said, or will Do or Say, MEANS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING AS LONG AS HE TOES THE EXTREMIST LINE.(Updated).

Reverend Whitaker knows that my family and I are Jewish, and he asked if I would say a couple words in the aftermath of the Pittsburgh shooting and the Kruger shooting in Louisville.

I didn’t know what to say.

I also realized in that moment that for a 4th-generation Jewish Marylander, I’ve found myself off the beaten path and in some interesting situations in my adult life.

In college, my Arabic professor was a Palestinian from the Gaza Strip. I sat in a history classroom at the American University in Cairo and watched the professor draw map after map of the Middle East in which the word Israel never appeared. I taught English to Iraqi refugees in Syria in 2006 after college. My students were overwhelmingly Muslim. Soon after I arrived in Damascus, the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah kicked off.

In the Army, I found myself in an ambassadorial role I never anticipated. I often joked that there were two Jews in the Army Rangers — I just never met the other guy.

My job in Afghanistan required me to build relationships with Afghan leaders across cultural, linguistic, and ethnic divides. I often wonder what my Afghan partners would have said or did had they discovered my religious identity.

During our primary election cycle, a blogger in our district wrote repeated and sometimes vicious posts about me as a candidate in which he made assumptions about my background and policy positions he would never have drawn about a candidate with a different religious background. He would also come to public events and film my wife and me.

So I found myself in front the Waugh congregation yesterday tasked with making sense of the Pittsburgh and Kroger Shootings.

I thought about my first tour of duty in the Army near the Demilitarized Zone in South Korea.

Our commander was African-American from South Carolina. His grandparents were sharecroppers. Our number two was from Texas. His parents immigrated from Central America. Our number three was Korean-American. His parents immigrated to the United States as a result of the Korean War. Our number four was a white guy from Kentucky.

We didn’t pretend like we didn’t have differences. But we recognized we all took the same oaths to the same Constitution.

And that actually meant something — all we had was each other.

So I told the congregates at Waugh about my first Army unit. But this is what I wish I added:

When a gunman tries to shoot up an African-American church in Louisville, it shouldn’t be up to the African American community to shoulder that grief. When a shooter shoots up a synagogue in Pittsburgh, it shouldn’t be up to the Jewish community to denounce hate.

My message is simple: we all have to stand up to hate and intolerance.

There are people in the Pittsburgh community who woke up on Sunday and saw their community and country through a new lens. There are people in Louisville who awakened to a new reality. There are also undoubtedly folks in those communities who would say they didn’t need these events to be awake and aware of hate and intolerance.

There are people in the Pittsburgh community who woke up on Sunday and saw their community and country through a new lens. There are people in Louisville who awakened to a new reality. There are also undoubtedly folks in those communities who would say they didn’t need these events to be awake and aware of hate and intolerance.

That’s why we need representatives who will speak out and support bills like the “No Hate” Act introduced by Senator Richard Blumenthal and Representative Don Beyer, which would strengthen federal laws that combat hate speech, threats, and attacks.

This is a time when we need to band together, denounce hate as hate, and demand our politicians step up and lead.

But Smith said that the caravan is at least two months from reaching the southern border of the United States, if they even decided to go there. He said the conversation about it only exists because of the approaching midterm elections on November 6.

"Tomorrow, the migrants, according to Fox News reporting, are almost two months away, if any of them actually come here," he said. "But tomorrow is one week before the midterm election, which is what all of this is about."

"When they did this to us — got us all riled up in April, remember? — the result was 14 arrests," he said. "We're America. We can handle it."

Smith has occasionally broken off from his fellow hosts on the opinion side of Fox News, all of whom are staunch supporters of Trump. In June, he said the administration was "lying" about a meeting between a Russian lawyer and Donald Trump Jr. And in November 2017, he picked apart a conspiracy theory Fox News host Sean Hannity pushed about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and a Russian energy company.

Molly was a single mother who raised three children while putting herself through college and then law school. She went on to challenge an incumbent Republican state senator and won. Molly has what it takes to win this race but she needs our support.

While Molly's opponent is funded by wealthy corporate special interests, she's rejected their donations and her campaign is being fueled by grassroots donors like you. That's a big deal, and that's why I'm asking you to help.

Sunday, October 28, 2018

(THE REALLY SAD PART ABOUT THIS IS THAT THE ELECTION WAS RIGGED. IN HIS FAVOR.)

FROM- 10/19/2016.The most amazing thing about Donald Trump claiming the Presidential Election is Rigged, is not that it is completely unexpected, but that anyone who really studies the problem couldn't see it coming.

- Donald Trump, and his Lackeys, realize that all the Misogynists, Bigots, Xenophobes, Homophobes, Religious Zealots etc., in the Country do not represent a Voting Majority.

- That his Platform of ... well... Hating everyone who is not on the FAR RIGHT EXTREMIST LIST

OF PEOPLE ALLOWED TO LIVE IN THE U.S. WITHOUT FEAR OF BEING TARGETS OF PERSECUTION OR PREJUDICE, doesn't appeal to many undecided voters.

- That Sound Bites Laced with Simplistic and Bombastic Drivel, that represent a profound inability to meet even the Most Minimal Levels of Intellectual Depth and Psychological Stability, do not indicate qualities that Most Americans would expect in their President.

So, as he sees the Election Slipping Away, Donald Trump plays the only Card he has left, given his limited abilities to convince Most Reasonable People that he is the Person who should sit in the White House. It is a Strategy that fits in perfectly with those who already support him, for it requires none of the following:

- An understanding of the Rules of Logic.

- The Ability to separate Gossip, Rumor, and Innuendo from Factual Data.

- The Understanding that you do not start any Investigation, be it Science, Law, Politics.,etc with a CONCLUSION, and then try to Shape the Evidence to Support it. BAD EVIDENCE DOES NOT CHANGE THE TRUTH, NO MATTER WHAT YOUR AGENDA IS.

- The REALIZATION THAT BASELESS ASSERTIONS ARE MEANINGLESS, NO MATTER HOW OFTEN YOU REPEAT THEM.

For more information, you may want to read my article- THE FALLACY OF PROVING A NEGATIVE.

Donald Trump has unleashed white nationalist hatred against black Americans, Latinos, Muslims - and now Jews.This hatred has led to neo-Nazi marches, internment camps, separating children from their parents, mail bombs - and murder.Trump and his angry Republican allies refuse to take any responsibility for fanning the flames of hatred - or make any serious effort to stop it.On Election Day - Tuesday, November 6 - we must elect Democrats at every level to #DefeatHate. Here's how:1. Preview your ballot with comprehensive recommendations from progressive groups, presented by #VOTEPROCHOICE. Use it to vote early if your state allows it.

5. Join the Blue Wave Voters Facebook groupand connect with other progressive activists who are helping to build the Blue Wave.Our Blue Wave is strong - we have an 8% advantage in the polls, but Trump is firing up his angry supporters, and we know they are going to vote. We can't afford to have a single Democrat on the sidelines. The Blue Wave is coming. Thanks for joining us!Bob Fertik

In mid-2017, my team reached out to The Canton Repository to see if they could send a single reporter to cover my announcement that I would be running for Congress in the OH-7.

Instead of a big rally or political event, our team launched this campaign by cleaning up a local park. We wanted to set the tone from the very beginning that this job is about serving the people of Ohio.

The Canton Rep sent a reporter -- and they’ve been covering our campaign ever since. Last cycle, they endorsed my opponent. This past week, they decided to endorse our campaign -- and they urged voters to support us, too.

They’re not the only ones. Local papers from all across the district have endorsed us.

From Day One, I’ve said that the word ‘present’ is in ‘representative.’

But for years, Ohio families have had an absentee member of Congress who has time for everything but meeting with his own constituents. This district was drawn to protect Gibbs and he’s built a campaign machine that has accepted more than $1 million from corporate PACs.

Gibbs thought he was untouchable and would never have to worry about a challenger -- let alone a first-time candidate who completely disavowed any corporate PAC money.

But now we’re picking up a record-number of endorsements, have thousands of volunteers throughout the district, and this race shifted in our favor.

Friday, October 26, 2018

Democrats have spent the last two years connecting with voters, defining the stakes, and coming together to create lasting change that capitalizes on our momentum and helps strengthen our institutions for decades to come. Because of this incredible work, we’ve flipped 44 seats from red to blue across the country since 2017.

But we still have so much opportunity ahead of us -- in 2018 alone nearly 800 state legislators will be elected. State legislature races are also a great way to make an impact as an activist. The budgets and walk lists are smaller than those of congressional races, so you can move the needle with a few volunteer hours or donations.

There are many organizations doing great work in the states, but I'd like to highlight three in particular—including two groups that Onward Together is proud to work with!

Volunteer with FlippableStates write the rules of our elections—including national ones. States pass policies that impact our lives and states prepare leaders to run for national office. The people we elect to state House and state Senate wield tremendous political power. From drawing district maps to deciding who gets access to Medicaid, state representatives have the power to make—or break—our democracy. Flippable works to maximize our impact by aiming to flip whole chambers (e.g. a state’s Senate or House), not just individual seats. They focus on states with the worst gerrymandering and voter suppression, because these states have the biggest effect on national politics. In 2018, they’re targeting Florida, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Wisconsin, Texas, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Michigan, Arizona, & North Carolina.

Volunteer with Sister DistrictSister District works to ensure that all Americans have equal representation and our government works for all people, not just the current minority in power. They organize volunteers into local teams based on where they live, and "sister" this deep blue energy with swing districts across the country to support strategic state races that matter. Sister District has a strategic, targeted focus on critical down-ballot, state races that—if we win—will make it easier to win national elections. Want to get involved? First, sign up! Then, Sister District will connect you with your home team. You’ll work together with your local team to fundraise, phone bank, postcard, text bank and, if you can, travel to the Sister Race community to knock on doors and get out the vote.

Volunteer with the DLCCFor over two decades, the DLCC has been working with state legislative leaders to invest strategically in state programs, which has led to Democrats flipping 44 seats since Trump's inauguration. The DLCC is building on Democrats’ winning momentum and continues to lay the groundwork for substantial gains in 2018 in statehouses nationwide. The DLCC will continue to partner with state caucuses and legislative leaders to recruit and train strong Democratic candidates to run in legislative districts around the country. The DLCC provides comprehensive resources that state Democrats need, including campaign expertise, a network of state leaders, access to data, field operations, and whatever else it takes to win.

So many of the campaigns we see or read about in the news are national -- and while those are incredibly important, we can't forget about the importance of state races. In these final few weeks before Election Day, the time you give in your local community to help elect Democratic leaders to state legislature could be the final push that makes the difference in efforts to flip these seats to blue.